- Joined
- Jun 23, 2011
- Messages
- 786
I will first preface this by saying I'm generally not a huge fan of electronic digital measuring tools.... I was in Harbor Freight last night to buy a new buffing wheel. As always, I left the store with more than I went in for.
As I was browsing I saw a digital micrometer on sale for $34.95. My immediate thought was that must be a piece of garbage. But I opened the box and took a look... It appeared to be well made. I turned it on and it zeroed consistently. I noticed the display read to 5 decimal places (technically 4-1/2). Yeah right I thought. But for that price ($27.18 with the 20% coupon I printed online), I figured what the heck. It comes with a ball end attachment, spare battery, case, and battery replacement tool.
I got it home and started measuring things. In every case it agreed with my mechanical 0.001 mike and seemed to measure things I more or less knew the size of to sub 0.001 accuracy and do it accurately and consistently. I don't have jo-blocks, Deltronics or anything like that at home so I was limited in really testing this thing.
Here at work we have a mechanical inspection department with super high end stuff in a HEPA filtered, environmentally controlled room. This morning I gave the new mike to the head inspector and he checked it against his Grade AA Jo-blocks. In every case it read accurately and consistently to 0.0001" Needless to say I'm shocked at how well this thing works!
Of course I don't know how well it will hold up, and I haven't yet dropped it, but so far its a big winner... If someone asked me to think of one complaint about this instrument I would say that it doesn't have the feel of the $500 Mitu or Starrett units we have. But this would be nitpicking - the feel of it is not bad at all.
It doesn't show up at HF's website so I can't post a link, but here a photo of the unit...
John
As I was browsing I saw a digital micrometer on sale for $34.95. My immediate thought was that must be a piece of garbage. But I opened the box and took a look... It appeared to be well made. I turned it on and it zeroed consistently. I noticed the display read to 5 decimal places (technically 4-1/2). Yeah right I thought. But for that price ($27.18 with the 20% coupon I printed online), I figured what the heck. It comes with a ball end attachment, spare battery, case, and battery replacement tool.
I got it home and started measuring things. In every case it agreed with my mechanical 0.001 mike and seemed to measure things I more or less knew the size of to sub 0.001 accuracy and do it accurately and consistently. I don't have jo-blocks, Deltronics or anything like that at home so I was limited in really testing this thing.
Here at work we have a mechanical inspection department with super high end stuff in a HEPA filtered, environmentally controlled room. This morning I gave the new mike to the head inspector and he checked it against his Grade AA Jo-blocks. In every case it read accurately and consistently to 0.0001" Needless to say I'm shocked at how well this thing works!
Of course I don't know how well it will hold up, and I haven't yet dropped it, but so far its a big winner... If someone asked me to think of one complaint about this instrument I would say that it doesn't have the feel of the $500 Mitu or Starrett units we have. But this would be nitpicking - the feel of it is not bad at all.
It doesn't show up at HF's website so I can't post a link, but here a photo of the unit...
John
Keep your Starrett and get the HF. The Starrett will be working reliably after the HF unit is dead and gone, never needs batteries, etc...
